The Red Sox kicked off their Wild Card series against the Yankees with plenty of drama and a couple of unexpected heroes. In his postseason debut, 28-year-old Nick Sogard played like he’d been there before. He delivered a clutch performance when Boston’s offense needed it most. Meanwhile, Garrett Crochet was lights-out, retiring 17 straight hitters at one point and fanning 11 Yankees over 7.2 innings. Thanks to those performances, the Sox pulled off a comeback win in Game 1.

But before fans start celebrating too much, Alex Cora reminded everyone that there’s still work to be done. Because Boston’s offense has holes, especially with Roman Anthony still sidelined. And the manager didn’t sugarcoat it heading into Game 2. The Red Sox need more than one night of magic to make a real run.

“In the playoffs, home runs matter. Like, it’s very hard to get three hits in a row. But this is who we are. This is our offense; we have to grind at bats, we have to take our walks, we have to run the bases well, and we have to be on point offensively. Because we don’t have the power other teams have, and yesterday was a good day for us. We have to do it again tonight.” Cora shared how the team is missing Rafael Devers and Triston Casas after the sidelining of Roman Anthony.

It was early September, right after Roman Anthony went down with that oblique strain. The impact was immediate, and by the first week without him, the Red Sox were 1-3 with a minus-13 run differential. The offense sputtered, averaging just 3.5 runs per game. And they were the only team without a homer during that stretch. Evidently, they’ve been missing the young star who managed to put up 2.7 fWAR in just 71 games this year.

Even Cora acknowledges the scene. “We started with the two big boys hitting in the middle of the lineup, Casas and Raffy. Casas gets hurt, Raffy gets traded. The kids come up, and they get hurt. And guys that are good baseball players are doing their job…”

And speaking of Devers, his absence was just as glaring.

The Sox struggled right after the trade, though hot streaks from Ceddanne Rafaela, Romy Gonzalez, Trevor Story, and Anthony’s debut gave the lineup some spark for a while. Still, no one fills the void quite like Devers, who’s built a reputation as a Yankee killer.

Yankee killer because across 199 career plate appearances against them, Devers slashed .270/.348/.533 with 31 HRs and 78 RBIs.

Boston misses him, especially when you imagine a lineup without Devers, Anthony, and Triston Casas.

Anthony is still far away from hitting the field for the Red Sox

It doesn’t look like the young outfielder is anywhere close to returning. “Roman Anthony still isn’t doing baseball activities, if you were wondering if anything had changed in the past two days.” Boston Globe’s Tim Healey said on Tuesday.

Notably, the Red Sox are in the middle of a high-stakes Wild Card showdown with the Yankees. Should they advance, the ALDS against the Blue Jays opens Saturday. So, for Anthony to be available, the Sox would not only need to survive New York but also see Anthony somehow start baseball activities and speed through his ramp-up process in just a handful of days. That’s an incredibly tight window, bordering on impossible.

While fans might dream of Anthony making a surprise return, in reality, it’s highly unlikely. The Red Sox will have to find ways to grind out wins without one of their most exciting young bats. And if they want Anthony back in the mix, they’ll first need to do the hard work of extending their postseason run.